Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
The Forgetting Curve Audio
Fiction
For ages 12 and up
Unabridged audiobook (MP3 CD)
Performed/read by: Alexander Cendese and Amy McFadden
Brilliance Audio, 2013 ISBN: 978-1480574786
A few years ago Aiden Nomura’s parents arranged for him to attend a boarding school in Bern, Switzerland. In the picturesque city there were few temptations for Aiden, and no terrorist attacks to worry about. Then there is a bombing in Bern and Aiden’s mother comes to visit him. She tells him that his cousin, Winter, has been hospitalized and that the doctors suspect that she has schizophrenia. Soon after he gets this news, Aiden gets a package from Winter. In the package these is a book which has been hollowed out and which contains copies of a comic strip called Memento.
Aiden’s parents planned on him staying in Switzerland over the summer, but Aiden manages to get himself expelled from the school and he goes home to Hamilton. His father decides that Aiden can help out at the family business. The Nomura’s own a tech company that specializes in cell phones. Aiden’s father is sure that Aiden, who loves to hack and “open doors” that are not meant to be opened, will find something at the family business to keep him busy.
Aiden is delighted to see Winter again, though he is not convinced at all that she needed to be hospitalized. For her part, Winter cannot remember what happened to her. She knows that her parents went away some time and that they are now back. She hears them say that they have been working in Japan while she stayed in the States, living with her grandfather. She hears all these things, but does not believe them. What she does know is that something feels off, feels wrong, and is not inclined to accept what she is being told at face value.
Velvet is content to carry on as usual, going to school, working in the second hand clothing shop, and hanging out with her friends. Then, quite by accident, she finds out that she has one of the new ID chips behind one of her ears. She has no memory of the chip being implanted. Velvet starts to listen to the “rants” of Meme Girl, a girl who is broadcasting an underground radio program. Meme Girl dares to suggest that the ID chips, the man who wants to be the new mayor, and TFC, the company that makes the forgetting pill, are all connected. Something is going on that could be bad for everyone living in Hamilton. Why else would the powers that be insist that everyone in Hamilton has to have the chip implanted?
Told from the point of view of Aiden, Winter, and Velvet, this sequel to Memento Nora explores what it would be like to live in a world where powerful companies try to take over by manipulating people’s memories and by preying on their fears. It is interesting to see how the stories of the three characters start to connect until they come together at a very important and interesting point in the story.
